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Questions and Answers
Which level of Prator's difficulty involves the transfer of a common sound present in both Arabic and English?
Level 1 - Coalescence requires learners to distinguish between multiple items in Arabic and express them as a single item in English.
True
What is an example of a sound present in Arabic but absent in English?
Glottal stop (ء)
In Level 4 - Overdifferentiation, Arabic speakers must learn new phonemes such as // and //.
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Match the following levels of Prator's difficulty with their descriptions:
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Which level of difficulty involves an item in Arabic that becomes multiple distinct items in English?
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At Level 2 - Underdifferentiation, learners have to learn new sounds that exist in English but not in Arabic.
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What are the two forms of the sound /l/ in English that Arabic speakers need to learn?
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In Level 1, the Arabic expressions 'كان' and 'كان يفعل' collapse into the English term '______'.
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What difficulty level is characterized by the presence of items in Arabic that learners must avoid transferring to English?
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Study Notes
Prator's Six Levels of Difficulty
-
Level 0 - Transfer
- No difficulty transferring features from Arabic to English.
- Sounds /b/ and /m/ are common in both languages.
- Example:
- English: /b/, /m/
- Arabic: /ب/, /م/
-
Level 1 - Coalescence
- Learners merge two distinct Arabic past tense verbs into one English form.
- Arabic distinctions: "كان" (kan) for habitual past actions and "كان يفعل" (kana yaf'al) for continuous past actions.
- English expression reduces these distinctions to "was" or "used to."
- Example:
- English: was/used to
- Arabic: كان / كان يفعل
-
Level 2 - Underdifferentiation
- Arabic sound item absent in English requires learners to avoid direct transfer.
- Arabic includes the "glottal stop" sound (ء, /ʔ/), which is not present in English.
- Arabic learners must adapt by not pronouncing this sound in English.
- Example:
- English: --
- Arabic: /ʔ/ (ء)
-
Level 3 - Reinterpretation
- Arabic items are presented differently in English, requiring adjustment from learners.
- The sound /l/ in Arabic is always clear, while English has both "clear" (/l/) and "dark" (/ɫ/) forms.
- Arabic speakers must learn contexts for using "dark l" in English.
- Example:
- English: Clear /l/ and Dark /ɫ/
- Arabic: Clear /ل/
-
Level 4 - Overdifferentiation
- English includes phonemes not found in Arabic, necessitating new learning.
- Arabic lacks sounds /p/ and /v/, leading to confusion between similar sounds.
- Example:
- Differences: /p/ vs. /b/ ("park" vs. "bark") and /v/ vs. /f/ ("van" vs. "fan").
- English: /p/, /v/
- Arabic: --
-
Level 5 - Split
- An Arabic item is differentiated into multiple distinct English items.
- The pronoun "هو" (huwa) refers to both "he" and "it" in Arabic.
- In English, learners distinguish between "he" (for people) and "it" (for objects or animals).
- Example:
- English: he / it
- Arabic: هو
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Description
Explore Prator's Six Levels of Difficulty in language acquisition, focusing on the transferability of features between Arabic and English. This quiz provides examples of how learners navigate varying levels of challenge in mastering new linguistic skills. Test your understanding of language transfer concepts and their implications for learners.
